Foundation member of All Progressives Congress(APC), Osita Okechukwu,has saidthe 36 state governors should be held responsible for the setback recorded in restructuring the country.
Okechukwu referred, particularly, to the governors’ refusal to implement the 4th and 5th amendments to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to buttress his claim.
Okechukwu spoke amid renewed calls for restructuring. Recall that the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka,had, again, placed restructuring on the frontburnerwhile delivering a lecture at an event organised by Punch Newspaper recently.
Soyinka at the Punch’s 50th Anniversary, had said: “When the word restructuring is booted around, we often have the challenge, what do you mean by restructuring? Well, I don’t even like the word restructuring, I prefer expressions like reconfiguration, decentralisation. And those who lead us recognise the necessity of it, they recognise the importance and almost the inevitability of decentralisation until they get in power.”
And former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, added his noble voice. He said: “I am on record for saying that these challenges cannot be effectively addressed under the constitution and governance system we have at the moment.
But addressing journalists yesterday, Okechukwu, who is the immediate past Director General of Voice of Nigeria, said he was not against restructuring if restructuring is a patriotic search for a prosperous society and the good of greatest number of Nigerians.
“If restructuring is for prosperous society and the good of the greatest number of Nigerians; do governors need restructuring before implementing the 4th and 5th amendments of the country’s Constitution,” Okechukwu asked.
Recalled that many governors had been foot-dragging towards the full implementation of financial autonomy for state Houses of Assembly and the Judiciary, which is the 4th Amendment.
Another APC chief in OsunState, OlatunbosunOyintiloye, has appealed to state governors and senior civil servants to give President Bola Tunubu, maximum support as he made efforts to fix Nigeria’s economy.
Oyintiloye said that it is not possible for the president alone to achieve his Renewed Hope Agenda for the people without the support of the governors and top civil servants, who were the engine room of the government.
He said this, yesterday, while speaking with newsmen in Osogbo.
He said: “This is the time for state governors, irrespective of political affiliations, to join the President in fixing the economy by attending to the welfare of the people.
“What the President is doing at the centre to fix the economy will only be meaningful to the people, if the state governors can lend helping hands.
“What the governors are currently collecting as monthly allocation is more than in enough to lift the people out of poverty in relation to what the president is doing.”
